Gchusetts Gov.Mitt Romney righted an archaic, 330-year-old wrong when he signed a bill repealing a 1675 statute that precluded North American Indians from setting foot in Boston.

“It is our hope,” Romney said,”that signing this bill into law will provide some closure to a very painful and old chapter in Massachusetts history.”

And yet,a week earlier and just a short drive to the northeast of Boston,the Salem Redevelopment Authority unanimously voted to have fun with a horrifying 313-year-old historical reality in the name of money,of course,specifically the money that would be left in Salem by tourists.

By a vote of 4-0 the Salem Redevelopment Authority agreed to accept an offer from the TV Land network to erect a statue saluting Samantha Stephens,the suburban witch played by the late Elizabeth Montgomery in the sitcom “Bewitched ,” which ran on ABC from 1964 to 1972.

Famous TV Witch. Salem. Get it? Perfect fit.

Except for one thing:The 19 women executed – hanged,murdered – in Salem in 1692 for refusing to admit that they were witches were real flesh and blood, not the fictional, witch-nose-twitching,spell-casting wife of advertising executive Darrin Stephens in a popular TV show that has been resurrected by TV Land.

Does the passage of time – 100 years, 200 years, 300 years – make the Salem witch murders any more fanciful or any less sobering?Do the years diminish the homicidal activity of will-of-God religious fanatics on Salem soil,on Colo-

nial American soil?

Why not a statue of near-sighted Corporal Agarn of “F Troop ” at the Little Bighorn National Battlefield Monument?Or a statue of Marcus Welby at the entrance to the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center?Or maybe a bust of Maxwell Smart to honor the memory of vanished CIA operatives?

TV Land,with the needed cooperation of other cities ‘ planners,has had some good ideas and good results. It has erected a statue of “Honeymooners ” bus driver Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason)outside the NYC Port Authority bus terminal. A statue of fictional psychologist Bob Hartley (Bob Newhart from “The Bob Newhart Show “)stands in

Chicago,the ostensible site of that sitcom.

A statue of TV newswoman Mary Richards (Mary Tyler Moore ) from the sitcom by the same name)has been placed in downtown Minneapolis,home of fictional WJM-TV.And although there was no such place as Mayberry,TV Land was granted permission to place a statue of Andy and Opie Taylor (Andy Griffith and Ron Howard from “The Andy Griffith Show “)in Raleigh,N.C.

Good stuff.Fun stuff. Even historical good,fun stuff,as it relates to American pop culture.

But to attach a TV comedy witch and tourist revenue to the town where 19 innocent women were murdered as witches makes for desperately sad commerce.

“The idea behind our landmarks is to celebrate America ‘s favorite TV characters in places where there is a connection to them,” TV Land VP Rob Pelizzi told the Boston Globe.

But there is not connection between TV comedy witches and the 19 women murdered as witches,no more so than attaching “Laverne and Shirley ” to Jeffrey Dahmer because they all lived in Milwaukee.And,while three “Bewitched ” episodes were filmed in Salem,the show was set in Westport,Conn. It ‘s first-script title was “The Witch of Westport.”

Early this month,prior to Salem ‘s approval of the statue – a 9–foot,bronze number showing Samantha sitting sidesaddle on a broom – National Public Radio presented a thoughtful,both-sides report on the town ‘s statue debate.

A man heard in the report,a Salem resident,a descendant of one of the murdered “witches,” reasoned that such a statue would be similar to having fun at the expense of Holocaust victims.

And then,NPR,as socially sensitive as it strives to be,ended the report with a song:Peggy Lee ‘s rendition of “Bewitched.” Get it?

QUOTE

“There is no connection between TV witches and the 19 women murdered as witches.”